Daily, package delivery companies collect millions of packages from thousands of locations scattered over large geographical areas and transport them to sorting facilities for processing. Initially, laborers employed at a sorting facility performed the sorting process, that is, they had to grab, lift, carry and place the packages from one sorting station to another. Presently, extensive use of manual labor has diminished as new sorting facilities are equipped with automated sorting and transfer systems.
However, for various reasons, it may not be practicable or desirable to entirely replace the manual sorting process. Furthermore, it may even be desirable to integrate manual and automated sorting systems to create a semi-automatic sorting process. For example, it is known to mechanically pre-sort objects transported toward a manual sorter; to mechanically divert objects from a feed conveyor into adjacent receiving containers for future manual sorting; and to have a manual sorter scan a machine readable label affixed to a package before the manual sorting process can continue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,504 (Hiramatsu et al.) describes a video coding system which reads and converts alpha-numeric symbols, such as the address and zip code of a mailing, into a bar code which is then printed and affixed to the article. Thereafter, the bar code is scanned and the mailing is automatically sorted under programmed control according to the destination location represented by the bar code. In the event the alpha-numeric symbols are not decipherable by the video coder, a terminal displays the mailing's addressee to an operator who then deciphers the address to the extent necessary to generate the bar code.
The article handling and routing system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,464 (Miller et al.) includes an automated method and system for optically detecting destination data on a tag affixed to a piece of luggage. There, the tag bears a uniquely configured target symbol positioned adjacent to data representative of the luggage's intended destination. Cameras, positioned upstream of a diverter, capture the target symbol and other pertinent information on the tag as it passes within the camera's field of view. The destination data is then processed and used to direct a diverter under programmed control.
French Patent 2,676,941 (Roch) describes an automatic envelope sorting system which includes a feed conveyor, switching devices, and a series of compartments arranged in rows and columns. These compartments contain modules designed to accept envelopes, sorted according to final destination, until the module is full. Thereafter, the compartment is automatically emptied by a mechanism which replaces the full module with an empty one.
The sorting machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,446 (Pavie) describes an automated sorting system wherein envelopes are transported along parallel feed conveyors toward switching units which read a destination marker affixed to each envelope. Based on the destination marker information, the switching unit either allows the envelope to continue uninterrupted toward a downstream sorting line or directs the envelope to an adjacent parallel conveyor which will transport the envelope toward another downstream sorting line.
Verbex Voice Systems, Inc. (Edison, N.J.), manufactures and distributes a portable continuous speech recognizer, Speech Commander™ Portable, available with a headset and digitized speech response which communicates with a remote computer. An operator engaged in manual sorting and wearing Speech Commander™ may speak an article's destination location into the headset, which the computer receives and processes. The computer then responds to the operator with a verbal prompt through the headset, which identifies the receiver or bin associated with that article's destination location.
The prior art automated sorting devices rely upon machine readable codes and symbols. The code or symbol affixed to an object is decoded and the resulting signal is used to automatically sort and transfer the object under programmed control. Should the automated sorting process fail to correctly transfer an object, that object must be manually sorted. Currently, manual sorting within or after an automated process requires an operator to decode the machine readable label on each article to be sorted before continuing the sorting process.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system that improves manual sorting by eliminating repetitive steps such as hand-scanning, marking and labeling each article to be sorted; provides a means by which a manual operator can quickly and easily identify an article to be sorted; decreases sorting errors which arise from misread labels; and, increases the throughput efficiency of manual sorters.